Jay Gruden’s decision to rest Kirk Cousins and several other key starters for tonight’s preseason game against the Jets was not a part of any sort of long-term strategic plan. In fact, he just decided to do it this morning.

“We have a lot of good players in this locker room and I wanted to make sure our backups were ready to play at all times,” said Gruden. “We had a lot of our backups step up into starting roles last year and I thought it was important for Colt McCoy, who played quarterback for the first half] to get some quality work against a quality defense, along with some of the other guys that played, in first-team roles.”

Gruden may have made the decision some 12 hours prior to kickoff but he didn’t let many of the players affected by the change know until much later.

McCoy, for example, said that he was told he would be starting “in the tunnel” during pregame. He said that it was like simulating a real-life situation since backup quarterbacks rarely get much notice that they need to come into a game and perform.

On the defensive side of the ball, Martrell Spaight played Mike linebacker as Will Compton sat the game out. Greg Toler and Quinton Dunbar started at cornerback.

“I wanted to see Spaight play with the ones and against a good offense in the New York Jets,” said Gruden. “I wanted to see Dunbar play against [Jets receiver] Brandon Marshall and some of those guys from the Jets.

“These guys really showed up in practice. I wanted to see how they did agains a heck of a unit like the New York Jets. They showed up and played extremely well.”

The front-line players who sat out tonight will make up for some of the lost time next week in the third, “dress rehearsal” preseason game against the Bills.

“We’re going to play them a lot next week,” said Gruden. “We’re going to treat Buffalo very seriously and prepare . . . We’ll get some good work next week.”

Scandrick, 31, has played for the Cowboys since they made him a fifth-round pick in the 2008 draft. In nine seasons in the league, Scandrick has eight interceptions and seven forced fumbles.

He has been plagued by injuries the last three years. Scandrick was out for the entire 2015 season with a torn ACL. In 2016 he missed four games with a hamstring injury and he finished last season on injured reserve with a back injury. Whether his struggles last year were due to injuries or age remains to be seen.

Scandrick joins Nosh Norman, Quinton Dunbar, Fabian Moreau, and Josh Holsey at cornerback for the Redskins. Holsey is the only natural slot corner in the group and he played very sparingly as a rookie last year. Scandrick likely will fill the slot role until Holsey is ready.

We will see what the signing costs in terms of salary cap impact when we see the details of the contract. The phrase “up to” generally means that there are incentives included in the deal so we will have to see.

In recent years, the Redskins have signed former Cowboys defensive linemen Stephen Bowen, Jason Hatcher, and Terrell McClain.

When the Redskins traded for Alex Smith on January 30, news also broke that he had agreed to a four-year extension with Washington in addition to the one year left on his contract with the Chiefs. While we got some top-line numbers on the deal, we have gone since then without any details.

Until now.

The details show a deal that has a slightly higher cap hit in 2018 than was on his original Chiefs contract and the numbers rise gradually over the life of the deal, which runs through 2022. The top line numbers are five years, $111 million, an average annual value of $22.2 million per year.

Smith got a $27 million signing bonus and his salaries for 2018 ($13 million) and 2019 ($15 million) also are fully guaranteed at signing making the total $55 million (information via Over the Cap, which got data from a report by Albert Breer).

But there is another $16 million that is guaranteed for all practical purposes. On the fifth day of the 2019 league year, his 2020 salary of $16 million becomes fully guaranteed. He almost assuredly will get to the point where that money will become guaranteed since the Redskins are not going to cut him after one year having invested $55 million in him. So the total guarantees come to $71 million.

His 2021 salary is $19 million and it goes up to $21 million in 2022. There have been reports of some incentives available to Smith, but since we have no details, we’ll set those aside for now.

The Redskins can realistically move on from Smith after 2020. There would be net cap savings of $13 million in 2021 and $21 million in 2022.

The first impression of the deal is that the Redskins did not move on from Kirk Cousins because they didn’t want to guarantee a lot of money to a quarterback. The total practical guarantee of $71 million is second only to Cousins’ $82.5 million. It should be noted that Cousins’ deal runs for three years and Smith’s contract is for five.